April insights

At ThoughtLeaders, we pride ourselves on keeping up with the latest industry trends and news and putting the big messy world of the content into some kind of context. From our podcast to Linkedin, we are constantly sharing important insights about influencer marketing - everything from up-and-coming YouTubers and brands that are killing it with influencer integrations to advertisements spreading misinformation and the murky world of NFTs.?

April has already been quite the month - read on to keep up with the latest influencer marketing news and trends:

Rise of Booktube

Booktubing - the niche on YouTube that focuses on all-things bookish, including reading vlogs, book reviews, book shopping hauls, and monthly book wrapups. This community first emerged around 2010 and, for years, was a very small community. That is until recently - as is clearly highlighted in the trend graph below, there has been a dramatic increase in book-related YouTubers. According to our data, there are currently close to 1,000 Booktubers, so if you are looking for a new book to read, you really have no excuse.?

Before you roll your eyes and think ‘why would anyone spend their time listening to someone rave about books’ - here’s why it's important to keep an eye on this growing online community. These book ravers who racked up over 1.24B views just this past year, have completely taken the publishing industry by storm. According to Barnes and Noble’s Director of Books, “Sales have been soaring…2022 is on track to be stronger than 2021 and 2019. The company’s sales began to turn around during the pandemic, when lockdowns led to a reading renaissance. By the summer of 2020, the company started to see a dramatic lift in sales”. The American bookseller also added another important anecdote: “Surprisingly the spike isn’t in e-books or online sales. [People] are going to physical stores to buy hard copies, sometimes 10 a month. They are staying to film videos, further boosting engagement”.?

Size doesn’t matter - micro-influencers vs. mega influencers

Now, more than ever, brands have a nearly unlimited number of influencers to choose from to help boost a brand’s visibility, thanks to creators promoting products and services to any type of audience, niche, industry, or category.?

However, having all these options can get quite overwhelming:

• Should a brand focus on getting the product/service in front of millions of eyes with the help of mega-influencers, which can get quite expensive??
• Should you partner with an influencer that has a smaller, but, usually, more loyal audience (high average views)??
• Is bigger really better?

Micro-influencers typically have between 1,000 and 100,000 subscribers- but don’t let these smaller numbers fool you! Having a smaller audience can mean higher engagement with the viewers, which oftentimes is more important than a high follower count. An audience that is more engaged means that they are more receptive to brands that are being endorsed, in comparison to some of the ‘bigger’ names on YouTube. Micro-influencers also tend to be more relatable than their ‘celebrity’ counterparts, making it easier for the followers to connect to them on a personal level. In addition, micro-influencers typically cost less to work with than more prominent influencers, making them a more affordable option for brands. As a result, it's often better for brands to work with smaller influencers who can connect with their audiences more authentically.

How much do gamers make on YouTube??

Half of the 10 highest earning YouTubers listed by Forbes in 2021 create content centered around video games for an audience of millions. The most popular gamers on YouTube are earning more than $10 million a year! So how exactly are these creators doing it??

Quick breakdown:

• To reach the partnership status you need to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers, you have at least 4,000 hours of total watch time within the last year and are at least 18 years old. This opens up quite a few streams of income: YouTube Super Chat, YouTube gaming memberships, ads, and affiliate marketing.?
• Sponsorship is where the big money is at! Every YouTuber has their own rates (want to calculate your rate? Here’s our YouTube sponsorship calculator) depending on their size, reach and ad length.?
• YouTube vs. Twitch? YouTube is a better platform for long-lasting content as all your previous streams will be available to rewatch on your channel. But, on Twitch, your previous streams will disappear after 14 days. It’s also more difficult for newer creators to be ‘discovered’ on Twitch as the channels are sorted from highest to lowest on viewer count. Another important difference - YouTube gaming offers a 70/30 revenue split on any sales whereas Twitch demands a 50/50 split on sales
• The gap between male and female gamers is continuing to grow - male gamer channels get 300% the views of female gamer channels, and male gamer channels average about 15? million subscribers, while female gamer channels average at 4 million subscribers.?

Willa launched an airline for influencers

The fintech platform, Willa, has taken ‘catering to influencers and creators’ to a whole new level. Willa has launched an airline - Willa Air - that plans to fly influencers and content creators around the globe, allowing them to attend events and reach ideal content-making locations easily and, of course, in style.

Willa Air will take off on April 15th and is set to take 12 influencers to this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival on an exclusive and free flight. Willa’s official website explains that “this exclusive experience will have everything you never knew you needed - from a pre-flight champagne bar to a post-weekend detox.” The flight is supposed to take less than an hour.?

Willa’s Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Aron Levin said in a statement: “We launched Willa Air to provide a superfast and convenient travel for the content creators who are jetting off to events across the U.S. Naturally, we are launching during this huge, creator-fueled weekend in Coachella Valley, one of the biggest influencer events of the year. Willa was founded with the mission of helping creators, and quick, seamless travel is one of the many ways we are supporting our audience”.??

How do Twitch streamers make money??

Do Twitch streamers get paid for views? How do brand sponsorship work on Twitch? I don’t like gaming - could I still succeed on the platform?

Between August 2019 to October 2021, Ninja, one of Twitch’s most popular streamers, made approximately $1,300,000. That’s right - this streamer played video games while hundreds of thousands of viewers watched on and made about $50,000 a month.?

Here’s a quick breakdown:?

• Subscriptions: Twitch subscriptions give the streamer the option to add monthly subscriptions to their channel for $4.99. The money collected is split 50/50 between the streamer and Twitch
• Twitch bits: mini donations from viewers that are paid through Amazon payments. A streamer receives $0.01 for every Bit that someone uses to cheer in a chat.?
• Advertisements: Twitch offers a high degree of flexibility in regard to how often the ad runs and the length of their ads
• Merch: For the time being, only Twitch Partners can sell games and in-game items from their page. When a purchase is made, 5% of the revenue will go to the Partner.?
• Sponsorships: Twitch viewers spend hours watching their favorite streamers, so they obviously value and trust the creators they stream. This is ideal for brands because:
• Viewers can see the product/service being used in real-time
• Questions about the product/service can be asked via the chat feature
• The editing factor is taken out of the equation, so the promotion can feel more authentic.??

Influencer Marketing meme?

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